SOUTH BEND -- There is an art and there is a science to playing the quarterback position, as Brian Kelly likes to say. The same goes for coaching the position.

It's the Notre Dame third-year head coach's charge this week to merge those two worlds as the 20th-ranked Irish (2-0) push for the first 3-0 start at the school since 2002 Saturday night at 10th-ranked Michigan State (2-0). Kickoff is 8 p.m., and ABC has the national telecast.

The Spartans have won 15 successive home games, the fourth-longest active streak in the FBS behind only LSU (19), Wisconsin (17) and Northern Illinois (15). Most of those wins have been delivered by a defense that again ranks among the nation's best statistically and figures to be tops on ND's schedule.

Sophomore Everett Golson will make his third straight start at quarterback for the Irish, this time against a defense that has yet to yield an offensive touchdown. It's Kelly's intention -- but certainly not his guarantee -- that the Myrtle Beach, S.C., product will finish the start as well.

"We don't want to break the game down to starter, middle relief and closer," Kelly said Tuesday. "We want one guy to start it and finish it."

Former starter Tommy Rees finished last Saturday's 20-17 ND victory over Purdue, connecting on three of six passes (not including two spikes to stop the clock) to get the Irish into range for Kyle Brindza's game-winning 27-yard field goal.

So how do you get Golson to be a closer?

"As we talk about Everett Golson's development, I think there are two areas," Kelly said. "Physically, playing the position, we are really pleased with him. I think the numbers point that out. I think he had really one bad throw, which was on a slant route that he kind of missed Robby Toma. But physically he's doing really good things.

"We saw his athletic ability, his escapability. We saw the incredible athletic move he made coming out of the pocket to score a touchdown. But we have a lot to do with the mental part of the game -- the quarterbacking, and the fundamentals, and all of the things that go along with that."

It's about sustaining, even building upon the numbers Golson has put up to this point. That's the art supporting the science. And the numbers are staggering, almost historical, in what is admittedly a tiny sample size.

The Notre Dame football team's third-down conversion rate when the first-year starter at quarterback is in the game is 69.6 percent. None of ND's previous six starting QBs -- Tommy Rees, Dayne Crist, Evan Sharpley, Jimmy Clausen, Demetrius Jones, Brady Quinn -- had a conversion rate of better than Crist's 42.1 percent over the first two starts of their careers, (Jones, for the record, made only one career start.)

Clausen, whose first two starts came on the road against Penn State and Michigan, brought up the rear of that group at 18.5 percent.

When Golson throws on third down, he is 7-of-9 (.778) for 127 yards with four first downs and one touchdown. Three of those completions went for more than 20 yards -- 41 to DaVaris Daniels, 30 to Troy Niklas, 22 to Tyler Eifert -- all against Purdue.

From a completion percentage standpoint (33-49, .673), you'll have to go back to 1983 to find an ND quarterback with a better percentage through his first two career starts. That's Steve Beuerlein at .680 (17-of-25).

In charting every ND starting QB back to the 1975 season, you don't have to go back far to find No. 3 on the list behind Beuerlein and Golson. It's Rees (.650 through his first two starts).

Ron Powlus (.647), currently the quarterbacks coach at Kansas, and Dayne Crist (.627), currently the starting quarterback at Kansas, are Nos. 4 and 6 on the list. Rick Mirer (.636) is No. 5.

The bottom five, though, arguably has even bigger names. Blair Kiel had a .306 completion rate over his first two starts -- both wins, though. In 1980, the uncle for current Notre Dame freshman QB Gunner Kiel became the first true freshman to start at QB at Notre Dame once freshman eligibility was restored for good in 1972.

Joe Montana was second from the bottom (.312) on the list, Tony Rice third (.333), Jarious Jackson fourth (.400) and Arnaz Battle fifth (.419). Rice and Montana are the last two QBs to lead Notre Dame to a national title, 1988 and '77, respectively.

The two quarterbacks who top ND's career passing yardage list -- Quinn (.447) and Clausen (.571) -- fell in the middle of the two extremes.

Kelly calls the areas where Golson has the steepest learning curve "housekeeping." That's primarily getting the plays in from the sideline, but also quickly changing out of a bad play at the line of scrimmage and speeding up the decision-making process once the ball is snapped.

"I'd rather be doing that, than worrying about whether my quarterback has the physical ability to play the position," Kelly said. "We want him to clean up the other areas, and we just have to make sure he takes that next step. And that next step is today.

"It really is, because Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then I'm done. I can't coach him anymore. You can't do a lot of coaching on Saturdays. So today, Wednesday and Thursday are really important days in the development of Everett Golson."

Personnel matters

-- ND's leading rusher from 2011, senior Cierre Wood, makes his 2012 debut Saturday night after sitting out the first two games of the season because of a suspension.

Senior Theo Riddick will start at tailback, but Wood figures to be heavy in the mix as does sophomore George Atkinson, who got only one carry Saturday against Purdue.

"I think it just gives us more versatility and more weapons on offense that we can utilize for those big-chunk plays," Kelly said of Wood's role.

"We have to get George some more touches, as well, because we think we have got really three backs that have equal starting ability. They all can be stars and starters. We have to make sure that we integrate them all into the offense."

-- Danny Spond is finally back from debilitating migraines that have sidelined him since the first week of August training camp. Kelly said he expects the junior drop linebacker to be available for Saturday's game against MSU.

Sophomore Ben Councell has been listed as the starter for the first three games, with 17-year-old freshman Romeo Okwara as the backup. However, the Irish haven't had the drop linebacker on the field much at all during the first two games, using a safety instead because of matchups.

Michigan State, with its tight formations, figures to be the best opportunity so far to consistently get the drop linebacker on the field. Spond would share time with Councell.

-- All of the Irish players who were injured in last Saturday's win over Purdue are progressing on schedule to be ready to play against the Spartans.

The trickiest recovery is sophomore DaVaris Daniels' from a high ankle sprain. Kelly's plan was to limit Daniels in practice Tuesday, then push it a little harder Wednesday.

Daniels is ND's second-leading receiver with six catches for 119 yards.

Squibs

-- Notre Dame finished the 2011 regular season dead last in punt returns among the 120 FBS teams (0.3 per return). The Irish have modestly improved to 93rd (2.4) with freshman Davonte' Neal.

"We have got some work to do there," Kelly said, "but we finally have got somebody who -- and I'm not saying the other guys were scared -- but he loves being in that moment. And I love putting guys out there that want to be there, that relish that opportunity.

"Yeah, we've got to polish them up a little bit, but I think we've got a guy there that's going to be a good player for us."

-- Nine of the past 12 meetings between Michigan State and ND have been decided by seven or fewer points.

-- Saturday's prime time contest is just the 13th night game in Spartan Stadium history, but the fifth against the Irish. MSU is 8-4 in home night games, 2-2 in the ones involving Notre Dame.

Spartan head coach Mark Dantonio is 5-1 in night games played in East Lansing.